Autism Manifests Differently Based on Gender

According to CBS News, research published in Molecular Autism suggests that the way autism manifests itself in the brain differs between boys and girls. Researchers found that boys with autism had smaller callosal regions linked up to the areas of the brain that regulate emotions and decision-making while girls with the disorder had smaller callosal regions linking with the region of the brain that deal with planning and executing tasks. The fact that many more males than females are diagnosed with autism makes it difficult to study the disorder in females, but identifying these biological differences can help improve how autism is diagnosed and treated in boys and girls.